Well, doesn't seem to have worked... at least not exactly... not getting the vpu recover message thing, but the game in general is basically unplayable now. Instead of it locking up and resetting itself, now the screen just freezes totally with the sounds running in the background for a few seconds until the sound just studders/gets locked and I have to switch off the power to the PC because the whole thing is completely locked up.
I have't played PC games for a while but I don't remember Quake doing any of this stuff... of course that was on my old Dell. Either these glitches are just a part of modern games and I'm not aware of it, I screwed up the build somehow, or I purchsed unstable/incompatible components. jeez.
Anyway, going to go back to the latest catalyst drivers and fire up HL2 to see if I can at least play that game. (would be nice after spending all this dough):disgust: